Rekeda: Import substitution cooperation between Belarus and Russia to help survive sanctions pressure

25 июня 2022
The import substitution is one of the important projects of cooperation between Belarus and Russia. The joint efforts in this matter will help both countries to survive the sanctions pressure from the West.

Director General of the Center for the Study of Integration Prospects Sergei Rekeda shares this opinion. According to him, Belarus has long set up its own successful production in many areas instead of imported goods. Now it almost completely provides itself with everything necessary, from food to mechanical engineering.

Sergei Rekeda, General Director of the Center for the Study of Integration Prospects (Russia):

There are prospects, and they have already been discussed more than once, and at the Russian-Belarusian level, at the multilateral level of the "five" of the Eurasian Economic Union it was talked about creating a commission on import substitution and countering the sanctions pressure. Therefore, in fact, it is a correct and constructive process to replace the missing links in the production chain, to replace these links with our technologies, our resources, our human production capabilities, including those of Belarus. The share of import substitution in the Belarusian economy is higher than in Russia at the moment. Therefore, we have an opportunity to accumulate the Russian and Belarusian experience in order to protect our own economy. Belarus is important for Russia in terms of food security. Belarus has modernized refineries which Russian refineries also need. In general, the Belarusian industrial base is at a good level, since it has not been destroyed in the nineties. Cooperation is possible in mechanical engineering, instrument engineering, space technology, so we have a lot of areas here.